Argumentation theory and the rhetoric of assent

502 Pages·1990·1.2 MB·English

by  David Cratis Williams

Argumentation Theory and the Rhetoric of
title: Assent Studies in Rhetoric and
Communication
author: Williams, David Cratis
publisher: University of Alabama Press
isbn10 | asin: 0817305092
print isbn13: 9780817305093
ebook isbn13: 9780585203201
language: English
subject Forensics (Public speaking)--Congresses.
publication date: 1990
lcc: PN4181.A68 1990eb
ddc: 808.5/1
subject: Forensics (Public speaking)--Congresses.
Page iii
Argumentation Theory and the Rhetoric of
Assent
Page iv
STUDIES IN RHETORIC AND COMMUNICATION
General Editors:
E. Culpepper Clark
Raymie E. McKerrow
David Zarefsky
"Hear O Israel":
The History of American Jewish Preaching, 1654-1970
Robert V Friedenberg
A Theory of Argumentation
Charles Arthur Willard
Elite Oral History Discourse:
A Study of Cooperation and Coherence
Eva M. McMahan
Computer-Mediated Communication:
Human Relationships in a Computerized World
James W. Chesebro and Donald G. Bonsall
Popular Trials:
Rhetoric, Mass Media, and the Law
Edited by Robert Hariman
Presidents and Protesters:
Political Rhetoric in the 1960s
Theodore Otto Windt, Jr.
Argumentation Theory and the Rhetoric of Assent
Edited by David Cratis Williams and Michael David Hazen
Page v
Argumentation Theory and the Rhetoric of
Assent
Edited by David Cratis Williams and Michael David Hazen
Copyright © 1990 by
The University of Alabama Press
Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35487-0380
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States of America
The paper on which this book is printed meets the minimum requirements of
American National Standard for Information Science-Permanence of Paper for
Printed Library Materials, ANSI A39.48-1984.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Argumentation theory and the rhetoric of assent / edited by David Cratis Williams
and Michael David Hazen.
p. cm. - (Studies in rhetoric and communication)
Consists of papers thoroughly revised and heavily edited by original authors as
well as editors after having been presented at two Wake Forest University argumen-
tation conferences, held at Wake Forest in Nov. 1982 and Nov. 1984.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 0-8173-0509-2 (alk. paper)
1. Forensics (Public speaking)-Congresses. I. Williams, David Cratis,
1955- . II. Hazen, Michael David, 1947- . III. Series.
PN4181.A68 1990
808.51 -dc20 90-34221
CIP
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data available
Page vii
CONTENTS
Preface vii
David Cratis Williams
Michael David Hazen
1. Introduction: Argumentation Theory as Critical Practice 1
J. Robert Cox
Part I. Rationality and Assent
2. The Centrality of Justification: Principles of Warranted 17
Assertability Raymie E. McKerrow
3. Realism and the Rhetoric of Assent 33
Earl Croasmun
Part II. Form and Function in Assent: Descriptive
Approaches
4. An Exploration of Form and Force in Rhetoric and 53
Argumentation
James Jasinski
5. The Implied Arguer 69
Randall A. Lake
Page viii
6. Metaphor and Presence in Argument 91
Charles Kauffman
Donn W. Parson
7. Arguments in Fiction 103
Michael Weiler
Part III. Form and Function in Assent: Field Studies
8. Purpose, Argument Evaluation, and the Crisis in the 119
Public Sphere
Robert C. Rowland
9. The Problem of the Public Sphere: Three Diagnoses 135
Charles Arthur Willard
Part IV. The Turn to Critical Advocacy
10. Cultures of Discourse: Marxism and Rhetorical 157
Theory
James Arnt Aune
11. The Rhetorical Tradition, Modern Communication, 173
and the Grounds of Justified Assent
G. Thomas Goodnight
References 196
Contributors 220
Index 222
Page ix
PREFACE
The essays included in this volume grew out of the Biennial Wake
Forest University Argumentation Conference. Since the fall of 1982,
the Department of Speech Communication and Theatre Arts at Wake
Forest University and the University Debate Team have cosponsored
the Argumentation Conference with the hope of establishing a
recurring informal, small colloquium on argumentation theory at
which both established and aspiring scholars in the area can present
ideas to their colleagues with the prospect of the sort of intensive
give-and-take critiques rare in larger conferences. This volume
contains select essays that grew out of that interchange. Thus, while it
is not a "proceedings" of the Wake Forest conferences, it is an
outgrowth of those conferences.
The essays in this volume coalesce around the general question of
"When, if ever, is assent justified?" And, as Professor Cox astutely
notes in his introduction, such a question immediately leads into
considerations of argument and power. In these considerations, many
differing perspectives are represented in this volume: aesthetic and
symbolist approaches, rationalistic and formalistic approaches, field
theory perspectives, orientations toward various conceptualizations of
a public sphere, etc. The final assemblage, while perhaps not
providing any definitive answers, presents the reader with
articulations of many of the fundamental quandaries implicated in
criticism, quandaries regarding not only of justifications assent but
also of critical methods and their implication in issues of power, of
consensual, subjective, and formalistic ap-

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proaches to argument evaluation and their implication in issues of
power, and ultimately of the political role of argument criticism itself
as it becomes embroiled in the issues of assent and dissent, in the
constitution and reconstitution of various publics.
Argumentation Theory and the Rhetoric of Assent is intended not as a
primer on argument theory but rather as a look at contemporary
American approaches to a philosophy of argumentation and argument
criticism. As such, the essays contained in this volume probe the
implications of both current practices and theoretical approaches: the
objective is not to map the terrain argumentation theory has traversed
in recent years but rather to plot a route for the direction in which
argumentation studies should move. The concluding essays by James
Arnt Aune and G. Thomas Goodnight confront these concerns
explicitly.
In a volume of this nature, which has been several years in the
making, valuable contributions have been made by far too many
people to acknowledge them all. Certainly the other participants and
critics at the Wake Forest conferencesTim Hynes, Robert Mielke,
Walter Ulrich, Helen Warren, Kathy Harbart, Alan Gross, Joe Wenzel,
and Michael Lewiscontributed significantly to the intellectual
exchange that fomented these essays. To them, we owe our deepest
gratitude and appreciation. Many graduate students, and former
graduate students, at Wake Forest have also been instrumental in the
successes of the conferences and in the production of this volume; we
especially want to thank Bob Chandler, Lisa Honeycutt, Craig Rickett,
Judy McClendon, and Carol Bibby for their assistance. Additional
support, both financial and moral, was provided by Wake Forest
Provost Edwin Wilson, the Research and Publication Fund, the
Department of Speech Communication and Theatre Arts, chaired by
Don Wolfe, and the Debate Program, under the leadership of Alan